


Six Seven Eight

by majortom



Series: Currere Sex [9]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 23:47:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5109914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/majortom/pseuds/majortom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chalk meets Boone. Includes some of Boone's best lines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six Seven Eight

 

He walked down the river with a smile on his face. It was nice to be home. The cliffs and canyons of Zion seemed to escape the awful destruction of the civilized lands to the south. He couldn't remember why he ever wanted to leave. Joshua had left; but he, too, returned to the holy land. His thoughts shied away from Joshua, and focused instead on the happy faces of his tribe when they would see him return.

The walk took less time than he remembered. A few seconds passed and he was turning the bend that would bring him to the Dead Horse's camp. But something wasn't right. It was silent. When the camp came into view, Chalk fell to his knees in the river.

Burned. Everything was burned. The bodies of his fellow tribesmen were scorched and unrecognizable. The area was filling with smoke. He coughed, it burned his throat. He couldn't see more than the shapeless outlines of corpses, the shadows of White Legs, but they were bright with war paint. He looked up to the sky in despair and saw crosses. Hundreds of crosses with Dead Horses and Sorrows and Daniel and Joshua dead, all dead, ravens perched on their shoulders, picking at their eyes--

Chalk woke with a start. The smell of burned flesh still stung his nose. He rushed to the bathroom and was sick into the sink. Just a product of the dream. In the real world, there was no smoke left by the time he arrived back in Zion. He wiped his mouth with a shaky hand. Sleep would not find him again tonight.

He exited the hotel room. He had no destination in mind. He walked slowly through the silent town, feet moving independently for the most part. But the town was small, and soon he was back to the stairs that led to his room. He turned around to look at the giant lizard building. He had a strange desire to look out over the wasteland from the top of that building, as though if he got up high enough he would see something, find somewhere to go. But this wasn't Zion. There wasn't anything to find in this civilized wasteland.

He went up anyway. He didn't have anything else to do. He passed through the shop and up the stairs. He opened the door at the top.

"Goddamn it! Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry," Chalk said. "I didn't know anyone was up here."

"What do you want?"

The man was wearing sunglasses, indoors, at night, but that's not what struck Chalk about his appearance. He was wearing an NCR beret. He had seen them on dead bodies near the McCarran building.

"Are you NCR?" he asked.

"What's it to you?"

"I heard Jeanie May talking. She wants you to stop wearing that hat. She thinks it will get the town in trouble from the Legion."

"Yeah, I know. But this town is in trouble from the Legion either way. Might as well wear it."

Chalk considered this. "I just came up to see the view," he said.

The soldier raised an eyebrow at him. "Isn't much out there."

"No. Isn't much in here, either."

The man surprised him by laughing. "True," he said. "I've been thinking the same thing lately. I wanted to stick around this town until... well, doesn't matter anymore. Doesn't seem much reason for anything these days, except killing Legionaries. They've been busy with New Vegas, but soon there'll be more Legion in Novac than I have bullets."

They looked out over the wasteland. There was nothing, Chalk thought. Nothing left in the world. She had taken everything from him and burned it all.

He smiled. _She_ was still there.

Chalk gestured to the rifle. "You good with that?" he asked.

He scoffed. "You see this beret? It's from the First Recon division. Best of the best. Called us 'the last thing you never see.' Pretty accurate. And so am I."

"Sounds like you miss it."

He looked guarded. "Sometimes."

"It _doesn't_ sound like the town _wants_ protection from the Legion."

He made a noise of disgust. "They're scared. They don't want to fight it. Jeanie May told me... what are you getting at, kid?"

Chalk shrugged. "Sounds like we both need a new purpose."

He didn't respond for some time. The horizon was already getting light in advance of the dawn before he said, "Yeah. Yeah, we do. Can't stay here anymore. They don't even want me. They'd rather lie down like dogs in front of the Legion."

"We could travel together," Chalk suggested.

"Hnh. Yeah. Working on your own, you're a lot less effective. I've been there and paid for it. But this isn't gonna end well." He eyed Chalk through his sunglasses. "I'm shooting any Legionary I see. Hope that's not a problem."

"No, that's not a problem. That's a solution."

He laughed. "Damn right. You and I, we're just a couple of problem solvers. I'm Boone," he said, and held out his hand.

Chalk shook it, and thought for a moment. "My name is Seven."

"Weird name," said Boone. "Numbers. Like that Courier. The Legion bitch."

Chalk smiled again. "Something like that."


End file.
